( Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' series )

Simon Says I'm:: curious

Yeah, a turnaround from my last entry. Yeah, I know. But I kind of needed it.

But I just heard Catherine Hardwick *won't* be directing the next Twilight series movie. I still don't think it should be made, or any of the following movies for that matter, but I *do* start having a better idea of hope for it now that she's out. Now, they just need to replace the screenwriter and we might be going in a better direction! Honestly, I don't know just what Stephenie was thinking, but maybe she was just too excited that her book was getting a new treatment and a bunch of people outside herself were getting excited over it.

Everyone's slogging through as best as we can, and from what I understand, we're doing fairly well for ourselves, and yesterday helped. Hamster, I got your card, and I absolutely loved it! I'm particularly fond of the glitter, but I guess I'm easily impressed by little things like that.

Simon Says I'm:: cheerful

( Or maybe not...? )

( If it ain't one thing, it's another! )

Simon Says I'm:: cranky

( Reviews and spoilers underneath. Read at your own risk. )

Well, that's it for now. More as it comes up.

Yep, that's the end of NaNo, folks. Well, for me, anyway. The story isn't done...not by a long shot. I just need to walk away for a bit, is all.

Yeah, that sounds excited. Try exhausted. It's about 2:31 in the morning, and I'm about to head off to bed for some much needed sleep. After that, it's the mad-mad crunch tomorrow to make it to the finish line. I'm at 47,524, according to the NaNo validator...here's hoping I can break 50k tomorrow.

I'm really happy this year; I'll not only make NaNo, but it's actually a project I look forward to working on in the coming year. From there...no real idea, but we'll see. It'd be nice to go published, but I admit the idea scares the crap out of me. It's an excited sort of scared, but it's still scared.

I'd better actually get to sleep if I'm going to accomplish anything. I'll catch y'all later!

Simon Says I'm:: groggy

I could've opened up with another cheesy Warhammer line like I did last year, but I figured I'd spare you the bad gamer puns this year. I broke 40k (40,883, if memory serves correctly) a bit before lunch. Hoping to kick it up to as close to 45k as possible before the day's over, so I don't have that much to do tomorrow. I'm hoping to finish this week, so I can really kick back and relax over the weekend. Maybe even do some catching up with friends. :D It'd be absolutely awesome if I could finish in time for the officer's meeting...take care of roleplay, guild business, AND auctions.

All in all, I'm happy, except for the lingering worries about tomorrow. But we'll just have to see how that works out. I'm also hoping these sniffles are just that and not a cold. Really don't want another one of those.

( On the other hand, at least it's just generic vent this time. )

Wow. I feel better just writing all that, though I swear I've said it a few times before.

( Cut for lack of interest )

I only made 38k today. I have been betrayed by my Mac. Further story at 10.

Simon Says I'm:: anxious

Behind a cut for lack of interest and saving friend-page space:

( Regarding Twilight )

Oh, and I'm at 35,552 as of 7 PM CDT, for anyone doing NaNo stuff.

Simon Says I'm:: bitchy

Completely random post, so skip at your leisure. I'll try to keep it short.

This tea is good. Rediculously good. Nice and smoky...which is kind of different for a green tea. Still need to order my other stuff, though.

I hate stalkers. They make life very uncomfortable. I don't have one (at least I don't think I do, but the talented ones show up when you least expect them by default), but it's making me leery about doing anything online. Well, anything I'd post about, anyway.

This cheese is awesome, too...though I think I'll stick with goat and cow. Sheep's milk is either too mozzarella or cheddar for my liking. I guess one could say it's the Gemini of cheese--able to take on different faces depending on what's asked of it. Or maybe that's just actors, but I consider Gemini and Aquarius the ultimate actor's signs.

"Twilight" movie might be getting sequels. From a fan of the first three books: Please Gods NO. Seriously, one is enough. The first one is the only one I'd want to see made into a movie. Even if they managed to salvage book four (I don't even think I'd rent that on Itunes if it came out), book two would make so many people slit their wrists and throats for the first hour-point-five/two hours that My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park would look like amateurs. (This from a fan of Linkin Park. MCR...they're all right. I don't honestly think they're suicide music, but the public perception is there.)

I really wish I could write on weekends. I'm going to be SO FAR behind on my ideal word count, I'll be lucky if I break last year's record. And now that my flash drive's up and disappeared, transferring everything's going to be a hell of a time.

I could really do without this raging cold sore hanging out between my nose and lip. WTB faster-working Carmex, plzkthnx.

And on a parting note, where the hell did my gummi bears go?

Simon Says I'm:: dorky

See, I have a problem. I'm sure there's some sort of name for it, and a prescribed therapy for it, but I haven't looked into those options. However, I have a problem, and some of my friends are well acquainted with this. However, as most casual readers of their friend pages aren't at all interested in the inner workings of my vaguely twisted and potentially plagued brain, I've put this behind a cut.

( Again, I have a problem. )

/brace for WotLK impact

And by B.A., I mean BIG-ASSED Apology Post. I've posted them under cuts out of courtesy for my friends and their friend pages. Most of you probably don't care what's in here anyway, so where's the harm? It could be kind of long--just a fair warning.

( Dear Blizzard )

( Dear Oceanic Realm Players )

( To my characters on WoW )

Simon Says I'm:: anxious

Well, a lot of not much has happened recently.

1.) I hit level 25. In non-gamer-speak, that means another birthday has passed, and thus would start the end of my shelf life if I were still a single woman. Since I'm not (and I thank my lucky stars this is so), I'm good to go.

2.) One of my birthday gifts was an Ipod + Itunes gift card. Getting to know my Ipod is a challenge (especially as it hates my mactop with a passion), but it's still been cool. Now, if only I could figure out how the hell to transfer the movie I got to my Ipod, I'll be a happy camper.

3.) Introduced hubby to good Chinese food. Now it's just location and payment method he's complaining about. Ah, well, baby steps.

4.) I'm at about 18k+, possibly 19k+ on my word count. Haven't done an updated one since last night's late-night writing session. The word war was fun, and I wish I'd had the opportunity to do more.

I thought I had a huge post to make, but it looks like it's suddenly deserted me. Which is just as well, as I should probably start getting ready for my Shadowrun game.

Lucky me, lucky me.

I have most of my character profiles, plot notes, and a healthy start on a (fake) Wikipedia article for my NaNo this year. I also have one of several Archmage private papers on Serodopa Mutagenis--the name of which will quite possibly be changing after taking into account information from my best friend the biochemical pharmacist. Yeah, so I have some stuff that needs to change, but so far the reviews of the plot have been more than a little promising. I might have to post it here, to see what people think, but I'm worried I might jinx things. Of course, that probably means I shouldn't have posted a plot summary over at NaNo, but who cares, right? And now, I even have what seems to be a chapter to a sequel story (or just one set in the same universe) that was equally fun to write! Well, okay, it's not a FULL chapter--just a scene--but it was fun all the same. The character that fronted that one, Tarah MacNeill, is a bit too late to fit within the "Byroads" timeline, but I'm fairly certain she'll be connected to one of the characters in there. How, I don't know--we'll just have to wait and see! :D

I have some other stuff to figure out, but I have about two more weeks to do it. I don't even have my halloween costume pegged. (I COULD go as my MC, as suggested by some of my NaNo buddies, but she's a bit hard to match, being shorter, less fit, and considerably less allergic to cats than myself. Also, without contacts and hair dye, eye and hair color kind of don't match. At all.)

Simon Says I'm:: accomplished

...but I'm fairly certain I have my NaNo for this year. Beginning to end. And it promises to be equal parts exciting and awesome. The hard part is NOT doing any writing on it just yet, so I've been taking the scumbaggery route and writing source material.

Outlines are one thing; I did that for last year's project, and it helped. IMMENSELY. It didn't make the story any better, but "Roadkill Angel" was vastly superior to "Sequins and Starlight" (I bet I can count on one hand the people who remember THAT little tale!), just as this promises to be at least somewhat superior to "Roadkill Angel". At the very least, it has a workable beginning and ending and a meaty enough middle without being overfilling like Grandma's turkey and stuffing. (RA didn't even have an ending when I wrote it. Still doesn't.) As for Livewire...

Livewire is on indefinite hiatus. I might just rewrite the point after the escape (though I have to find a way to keep the dreams and hallucinations in there. I just do. And fuck it, Brudel ain't changin'. I don't care if people think he's a pennytheatre villain, I LIKE HIM!)

But as I was saying, outlines are nice. My universe is going to need a hell of a lot more than a mere outline to keep things going full-steam when I sit down to write. I have to write professional-grade papers on a fake "disease", press releases, field notes from spies and investigators, research notes and personal theses, personal journals, a working agenda for a very sick man, termination notices...

In short, I have to write supporting source material. If I try to make it up on the fly, I'll get caught up in it, and the poor thing will never be finished. I REALLY don't want that to happen, especially as this is probably one of my more truly original (as in, the likelihood of me finding someone else with a similar project on a professional level is slim to none) ideas. RA and Livewire came close, but RA was closer...and no one was terribly crazy about it. To be fair, it probably wasn't the most well thought-out, either.

Well, if Washington works out, then I'll have my work cut out for me. If it doesn't, that's four days of work I'd better be saving myself as much as possible. As it's the intro, I'm not saving much of anything, but once I get past that it'll be fairly smooth sailing 'til towards the end.

Simon Says I'm:: busy

Not genetic, my pasty, pimpled white ass.

Turns out pancreatic cancer ISN'T limited to the female line; now the sole surviving older relation on my dad's side has been diagnosed. Thankfully, he took notes from the last two and is pursuing all viable treatment options. Best decision he's made since he got help for his drinking problem.

Unfortunately, my mother's father has also now been diagnosed with cancer--one tumor in the shoulder, two in/on the lungs (they're not sure which yet).

Barring unforseen circumstances, this makes me more than certain that cancer will be what kills me, unless diabetes-related causes or heart complications get me first. I doubt having married a Cancer is enough to break threads of tradition. I'm betting heavily on pancreatic cancer (which is nearly impossible to catch early, but that's why I do yearly gen-maintenance checkups), though it could be skin or some other form easily enough. How he got tumors in/on his lungs, I'm not sure--he doesn't smoke, nor does he hang around in a lot of areas prone to carcinogens--but they're fairly certain that's the point of origin. They're also not sure how early they caught it. At this stage in the game, I'm not entirely sure it matters. If they can remove it, then he has a 50/50 chance of surviving; Mom's-side genes are built for sheer willpower and bullish strength. If they can't pull the ones in his lung, I give him 'til the end of the year; with his heart problems being what they are, and his age being what it is, chemo will be more than unforgiving, and even the best treatment can only give him so much.

Dad's side, on the other hand, is built for nerves and endurance, hence the long, grating rollercoaster ride that was their fight. With that combination, even in a worst-case scenario, I give myself about a 50/50 shot of walking away a scarred, bald, but happy lifetime pill-popper who might actually get to support my nephew and niece if they should find themselves attacked by this disease. If it kills me...well, I saw it coming.

As for my parents...so far, they've both turned up healthy. I can't put in words how grateful I am for that; despite the nonchalant tone of this post, this whole thing with my mom's dad has rocked us to the core. We kind of expected it out of Dad's side--they've been falling apart since Day 1.

Now it's just the wait that has us. Hell, we might go to New York, anyway; I might be looking at a slim shot of seeing my grandfather alive again if I wait too long.

Simon Says I'm:: shocked

Hmmm...

I'm really of two parts, though they're equal-opportunity suck, for this situation.

On one hand: Dude, WTF? It takes guff the likes unseen in many to take something secret you're trusted with and blare it for the world to see--especially if it can be tracked (points to Stephenie for being smart--and perceptive--enough to mark her works!). I realize there's the "information deserves to be free" types, but c'mon...a fiction book? YA fiction, no less? That's not "information that needs to be free." (My opinion, I realize that. Just saying.) And personally, I can't blame Stephenie for not wanting to write the story anymore; I'd get the same way if someone leaked my stuff. Maybe it's immature, but once you read something, the initial impression tends to stick in your mind, and it DOES kind of throw one's efforts when trying to rewrite. If some of J.K. Rowling's fans are anything to go on, then I can REALLY see why she'd be hesitant; what author wants to be told how to write in her own universe?

That said...

On the other hand: While I appreciate the reasons behind posting an "authorized" version of the Midnight Sun first draft (just because I'm always fascinated with the inner workings of things), it DOES make me a bit leery about the leak. While it gives curious readers like myself a legitimate resource, it almost does the work of their leak for them--which seems vaguely counterintuitive to me. Even if we don't ever get the name of the leak (I hope, at the very least, that action has been taken to cut off the leak's source--especially since she could identify it, thanks to marking each copy. I seriously have to give her gold stars and a cookie here for that.)

The end result?

I've read (well, still reading, as of this writing) the authorized first draft. Will I still buy the book when the finished version is released? You bet--might even be able to talk the hubby into two copies this time, so we're not hanging on each other's arms to finish it. From what I can tell, even the unfinished (completion and varnishing-wise) version is an excellent read and already has me itching for more. Now, I just wonder how her feelings toward fanfic run...I'd be interested in writing (or reading) about the series from CHARLIE'S point of view. Sure, we've already seen one human (Bella) and one "monster"-class (Edward, vampire), with some minor intermissions from Jacob (werewolf), but I'd be VERY interested in seeing it from her dad's point of view. I can't imagine Bella got her perceptiveness from strangers...or her mother, really.

Once a guilty pleasure, always a guilty pleasure...but one I'll stick with.

Simon Says I'm:: bitchy

Okay, wow. Just...wow. Six months since my last post. Where do I begin?

( Long post is long, so a cut for your convenience )

Simon Says I'm:: contemplative